Heat forces Italy's delivery workers to demand protection as temperatures peak

Delivery riders in Milan, Bologna and Florence have launched strikes to demand better protection for their health and wages as Italy endures record summer temperatures, according to the BBC. The action reflects growing concern among outdoor workers about the physical toll of heatwaves, which the BBC reported are pushing temperatures toward 42 degrees Celsius across much of the peninsula.

On the same day, Greenpeace Italy and the CGIL union staged a protest outside Rome's Colosseum, melting ice statues to dramatise the impact of extreme heat on outdoor workers and call for a phase-out of fossil fuels, Euronews reported. The dual action—strikes and symbolic protest—underscores a widening concern about labour conditions in an era of intensifying climate stress, with particular focus on workers who lack the shelter and climate control of office environments.